Japan’s aid agency is to provide US$280 million of concessional loans to the Myanmar government in support of the country’s economic recovery from the downtown brought up by the pandemic. The Myanmar government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a concessional loan agreement of ¥30 billion (US$280 million) in Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday (September 1), called the COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan.
Based on the loan agreement, JICA is providing US$280 million concessional loan to the Myanmar government to support resilient economic recovery through implementation of COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) and related policies for investment and trade promotion as well as financial sector strengthening. The CERP was announced in April by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and is estimated to cost $2 billion in total. The loan proceeds are going to be spent on this. This implementation of the policy reforms is also supported by JICA’s ongoing technical cooperation projects in the field of investment promotion, industrial development, trade facilitation and financial sector reform. JICA highly appreciates Myanmar government’s swift policy response to the economic impact of COVID-19 embodied in CERP.
The emergency support loan not only fills the critical financial gap for the implementation of short-term relief measures but also lays the groundwork for the sustainable long-term recovery through supporting prioritized economic policy reforms, leveraging JICA’s technical cooperation projects.This is the second measure from JICA to support Myanmar’s COVID-19 response. The aid agency in June rolled out a JPY5 billion SME financing programme. Last week, the EU and Myanmar inked a financing agreement support agriculture and nutrition in Myanmar. The EU will invest K180 billion over the next five years to support the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.
Source: Myanmar Times